Quote:
Originally posted by MeltMan
Whats the problem? Im not talking about the interface side of anything here... I'm talking about the top, and the sides of the block. Who gives a crap if the top and sides are microscopically concave or convex? Point is, you cant tell by looking at it and it achieves a better finish than lapping alone.
Polishing with arctic silver is pointless. Its not an abrasive, its a thermal interface material. The only thing I can see this helping is if you rub some into your lapped side (CPU side) to kind of "prime" the copper for its actual interface.
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Yea, we don't give a crap about the sides and top flatness. At least I don't. The idea is to not use a wheel on the mating surfaces. The finish on the sides and top are 'usually' just for aesthetics anyway, which some people are concerned about and some aren't.
You can polish with just about any material as long as it contains particles that are as hard or harder than the surface you are polishing, and the size of the particles are fine enough for the surface finish you desire. Copper is harder than silver, so you would not be able to polish copper with Arctic Silver, 'unless' there are other particles in Arctic Silver that are harder than copper. I think the idea of using AS while polishing is to saturate any surface pores with the AS, as you said. I haven't thought hard enough about the viabililty of doing that to give an opinion at this time.